Mehldau and Thile Tours Intersect at London's Wigmore Hall

Brad Mehldau, whose new album with pianist Kevin Hays and composer/arranger Patrick Zimmerli, Modern Music, is due out on September 20, launches a brief solo tour of Europe at the Montlouis Jazz Festival in Montlouis, France, tonight. Also on the tour are two nights at the Cité de la Musique in Paris; two shows in Ireland, at the Triskel Arts Center in Cork and the National Concert Hall in Dublin; concerts at the Oper Leipzig in Germany and Auditorio de Gerona in Spain. While in Europe, Mehldau will join mandolinist and label mate Chris Thile for a very special duo concert with at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Brad Mehldau and Chris Thile’s London concert is a continuation of the pianist’s curatorship of Wigmore Hall’s Jazz Series in 2011, in which he has invited friends from across the musical spectrum to participate in a variety of duo performances exploring the limits of improvisatory and experimental contemporary composition, in addition to more conventional work in the jazz tradition. Mehldau returns to Wigmore Hall in December for the final concert of the two-year jazz series with another duo concert, this time with acclaimed producer Joe Henry (Carolina Chocolate Drops, Allen Toussaint) on vocals. In the interim, Mehldau joins another label mate, saxophonist Joshua Redman, for an extensive duo tour of the US and Europe.

Chris Thile launches his own solo tour of the UK and Ireland at Borderline in London on Tuesday, following three shows in the US Midwest this week with guitarist Michael Daves, his duo partner on the recently released Nonesuch album Sleep With One Eye Open. Daves, who was due to join Thile on the tour of the UK and Ireland, is unable to do so due to an illness in the family.

See below for all the September tour dates. For information and ticket links on all of these upcoming performances, go to nonesuch.com/on-tour.

To reserve a copy of Modern Music, which features pieces written by Mehldau, Hays, and Zimmerli, as well as works by Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, and Philip Glass, performed by the two pianists in arrangements by Zimmerli, head to the Nonesuch Store. Pre-orders include a download of the title track now and the complete album starting September 20.